Top Five Cruises from New York

New York cruises operate all year round, taking visitors up the coast to Canada or across the Atlantic to England and south to the Caribbean. From luxury cruises to cruises the whole family can enjoy, cruise companies cater to individual needs and desires so there is something for everyone. Whether you’re hitting the Big Apple in summer or over Christmas, a cruise is always a great holiday experience.

New York Sightseeing Cruises

Sightseeing cruises offer first-time visitors to New York a fantastic opportunity to get a feel for the city while learning about New York’s history. For a three hour tour around Manhattan try the Circle Line Full Island Cruise, or if you’re pressed for time, try the one-hour long Zephyr Yacht Harbor Cruise. For the more laid back approach, try the Water Taxi’s hop on/hop off system for spectacular views of Governor’s Island.

New England and Canada Cruises

Stretch your sea legs with round-trip cruises to New England or Canada. These cruises are particularly popular in the Fall, giving passengers a chance to see New England wearing her autumn colors. Norwegian and Disney Cruise lines are a popular choice for these trips. For a more luxurious experience, make the trip with Crystal Cruises. This up-market cruise line offers passengers not only the experience of the open sea but over 200 featured wines, fine dining at specialty restaurants and even TaylorMade golf clinics aboard the vessel.

Transatlantic Cruises

Looking for something more exciting? The Cunard cruise line offers those with an adventurous spirit a true high-seas experience with six- to eight-day cruise options, sailing from New York to Southampton along one of the most fabled high-sea routes in history. Alternatively, the Azamara Club runs twelve-day cruises from New York to Rouen, the historic capital of Normandy in northern France.

Bermuda, Bahamas and the Caribbean

Head south from New York on cruises to Bermuda, the Bahamas or the Caribbean. Various options are available on cruise lines including Norwegian, Carnival and Royal Caribbean. Norwegian offers shorter trips to Florida before continuing to the Caribbean, Carnival offers eight-day cruises to the Bahamas making various scenic stops along the way, while Royal Caribbean provides the widest variety of cruise packages including Bermuda, Bahamas, and the Caribbean.

Family Cruises

No other cruise lines offer fun for the whole family like Disney Cruises do. Catering to families with children of all ages, Disney Cruises set sail to both Canada and the Bahamas and also offer a weekend ‘sail to nowhere’ special – a return trip in and out of New York for a short but unforgettable experience at sea. Disney Cruises from New York offers adults some down time with adult-only areas and staff arranged and monitored activities to amuse the kids.

Sailing From Manhattan’s Cruise Terminal

A Historic Landmark

Originally known as the New York Passenger Ship Terminal, the Manhattan cruise terminal is one of the must-see destinations for tourists visiting New York. Located on the Hudson river and a few blocks west of Times Square in NYC, this terminal was started sometime in the 1930s. It is the 4th busiest terminal in the United States of America and carries close to about 700,000 passengers every year.

History

The terminal came into existence when Mayor LaGuardia built piers along Manhattan’s west side in the 1930s. In the early 20th century, many of the world’s greatest passenger ships docked at this terminal. The ships docked at piers 84-94, which were later known as the Luxury Line Row with Normandie in 1935. For many years, the terminal was the only sea-travel passenger terminal in New York Harbour. Later, the Manhattan Cruise Terminal docked luxurious cruises from New York that were enjoyed by the royals as well as Hollywood personalities after the world war. Even after air travel became affordable, cruising did not lose its luxurious status.

Contributions

An industry is considered successful when it contributes to the economic activity of the state or the country, and such is the cruise industry in New York. It provides close to 3,300 jobs and contributes $600 million in economic activities. The Manhattan Cruise terminal provides services throughout the year. The terminal has seen the growth of the cruise travel business and continues to be the home for transatlantic travel from Europe. After the terrorist attack in 2001, the terminal was shut and served as an emergency management command centre for the city, state, and federal agencies for 3 months.

First-Class Passenger Terminal

To secure its position as the first-class passenger terminal, the city invested $200 million in 2004 towards its renovation. The renovation included new, modern, adjustable gangways for the terminal; and an expanded pier aprons for a faster, comfortable, and efficient way of embarking and disembarking passengers and loading and unloading goods. Moreover, the boarding and debarking of passengers was designed to occur on separate levels, which allowed a more efficient way of using passenger space and reducing congestion.

Facts

With an increase in ship traffic, two new terminals were opened in 2004; previously, the terminal could handle only three large ships at a time. The major cruise lines served at the Manhattan Cruise Terminal are: Carnival Cruise Line, Crystal Cruises, Holland America Line, Norwegian Cruise Line, Seven Seas Cruises, Silversea, and Seaborn. The first of many cruises from New York to have returned to the terminal embarking a 108-day world cruise from New York City was Queen Elizabeth 2 in 2002. Although the Manhattan Cruise Terminal belongs to the City of New York, it is managed by Ports America, a private terminal management company.

Embarking and Disembarking

There are many ways to get to the Manhattan Cruise Terminal: taxis, buses, limousines, and private vehicles. At the allotted drop-off, depending on the means of transportation used to arrive at the terminal, you will find porters who will help you with your luggage to carry them to the vessel. In case you need to park your vehicle, parking space is available for a fee. On return, passengers are directed to the baggage counter where porters position your baggage with colour and letter codes for easy identification. The exit way depends on the means of transportation you choose: taxis, buses, limousines, and private vehicles.

If you ever plan to go to New York, the Manhattan Cruise Terminal should be on your itinerary. The sight of a busy port with beautiful ships and cruises docked is extremely fascinating. To make your trip to New York even more worthwhile, take a trip on one of the cruises from New York!

Sailing from Brooklyn’s Cruise Terminal

From Necessity to Luxury

New York City is known for its energy and diversity. The city has some of the finest diners and tall structures, and is famous around the globe for fashion. To further add to the endless attractions of the busiest city in the world, it has three very beautiful cruise terminals, one of which is the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal.

History and Location

Brooklyn’s waterfront has served as a gateway to people and goods for almost 150 years. Developed before the civil war, Pier 12 on Brooklyn’s waterfront has served as a cargo pier for all types of goods. However, it is transformed into a 190,000 square foot luxury cruise terminal known as the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal, which opened on the 15th of April, 2006, with RMS Queen Mary 2 being the first ship that arrived at the terminal. The terminal is located in Red Hook, on the Buttermilk Channel and just across the river from Manhattan. It is managed by the New York City Economic Development Corporation and the Port Authority of New York/New Jersey.

Cruise Lines

The growing size of today’s ships was something the Manhattan Cruise Terminal was not able to accommodate, and therefore, the City of New York opened a port in Red Hook, the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal. This terminal grew in a very short period of time with some of the largest ships departing from here. Brooklyn Cruise Terminal is the New York home to most of the carnival ship cruises from New York, which is why it is also known as the Carnival Cruise Terminal. It mostly berths cruise ships from Princess Cruise lines and Cunard cruise lines. It also serves one of the largest cruise ships in the world, Queen Mary 2 of the Cunard cruise line.

Cruise Destinations from Brooklyn

The Princess cruise line offers services to the Caribbean islands on the big Caribbean Princess. Cruises from New York on the Princess area available from May to July. Apart from that, the Princess cruise line also offers services to Canada making stops on her way at Halifax, St. John’s, Bar Harbor, Boston, and New Port. If you’d like to cruise on the gigantic Queen Mary 2, December is the best time to do it. Brooklyn cruises also offer services to England and Canada. Queen Mary 2 provides transatlantic services from Brooklyn to England; Cunard also offers services on the Queen Mary 2 to Canada, the Mediterranean, and other special summer holiday cruises from New York.

Layout of the Terminal

The Brooklyn Cruise Terminal is built to accommodate some of the biggest ships and cruises from New York available. The overall structure of the terminal is humungous. The parking area at the terminal itself is about 186,000 ft2; it can comfortably accommodate 600 vehicles. It also provides 17 bus stalls for passenger buses. Those arriving by taxis or limousines can be dropped off at the appropriate drop-off spots. The terminal has 2 huge gateways, and ginormous checking and waiting areas of approximately 13,700 ft2 and 15,000 ft2 respectively. In 2008, the terminal served about 300,000 passengers with an overall ship call of 59.

Over 50 million dollars were spent to build the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal. Some of the biggest and the most luxurious cruises from New York are called to this new terminal at Red Hook. Apart from this fascinating terminal, Brooklyn also has other tourist attractions that might be of your interest, such as the Botanic garden and the Brooklyn Museum, both just 15 minute cab-rides away from the terminal.

New York Cruises are a great way to turn potentially boring and stressful travel time into part of the holiday experience. Hop on one and make getting there as much a part of the fun as arriving at the destination.